(2008)

Dear Bonnie A. Kirkland

On behalf of the Article Review Committee reviewing the code revision draft of Article 49B of the Annotated Code of Maryland, you have requested our opinion concerning § 6 of that article, which makes it a crime for an individual to receive "any remuneration of any kind whatsoever" for participating in a "racial demonstration." The Committee asks whether that provision is constitutional and whether its repeal would have any substantive effect.

In our opinion, a court would likely hold that an attempt to enforce the statute would violate the First Amendment of the United…